Quake measuring 4.5 shakes Mt. Hood

The strongest earthquake in the recent history of the Mount Hood region struck on Saturday.

Residents felt the brief shaking at 7:38 a.m. and again about four hours later. The quake measured 4.5 in magnitude, according to the University of Washington seismology lab. The quake was the strongest in recent decades, but it caused no reported damage.

“I was working on my computer and my chair shook,” said George Earley, who lives at the 2,500-foot level on Dog River Road near the community of Mt. Hood.

“At first I thought my wife, Margo, had come up behind me and shook the chair,” Earley said. He described it as a different type of quake from the one in March 2001, which had felt like “a slow roll.”

“This one was short and sharp, lasting just 2 or 3 seconds,” he said. The same effect happened at 11:51 a.m., Earley said.

“I thought they were sharp wind gusts like we get when weather changes, but I wrote down the times,” he said. They matched the quake chronology reported by seismologists.

Scott DeHart, owner of McIsaac’s Store in Parkdale, said he was in the back portion of the store at 11:51 a.m.

“I felt it shaking for just a split second. Stuff on wall shook a little,” DeHart said. “The one last year knocked things off the shelves, but this one just felt funny.” According to the Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network, quakes measuring between 2.0 and 3.2, all unfelt, happened between June 29 and July 2, to the south of the mountain.